A.--'The first of these I saw I remember very clearly, and the manner of
its appearance: there was at first a dazzle of light, and then I saw
that this came from the heart of a tall figure with a body apparently
shaped out of half-transparent or opalescent air, and throughout the
body ran a radiant, electrical fire, to which the heart seemed the
centre. Around the head of this being and through its waving luminous
hair, which was blown all about the body like living strands of gold,
there appeared flaming wing-like auras. From the being itself light
seemed to stream outwards in every direction; and the effect left on me
after the vision was one of extraordinary lightness, joyousness, or
ecstasy.
'At about this same period of my life I saw many of these great beings,
and I then thought that I had visions of Aengus, Manannan, Lug, and
other famous kings or princes among the Tuatha De Danann; but since then
I have seen so many beings of a similar character that I now no longer
would attribute to any one of them personal identity with particular
beings of legend; though I believe that they correspond in a general way
to the Tuatha De Danann or ancient Irish gods.'
_Stature of the 'Sidhe'._--
Q.--You speak of the opalescent beings as great beings; what stature do
you assign to them, and to the shining beings?
A.--'The opalescent beings seem to be about fourteen feet in stature,
though I do not know why I attribute to them such definite height, since
I had nothing to compare them with; but I have always considered them as
much taller than our race. The shining beings seem to be about our own
stature or just a little taller. Peasant and other Irish seers do not
usually speak of the _Sidhe_ as being little, but as being tall: an old
schoolmaster in the West of Ireland described them to me from his own
visions as tall beautiful people, and he used some Gaelic words, which I
took as meaning that they were shining with every colour.'
_The worlds of the 'Sidhe.'_--
Q.--Do the two orders of _Sidhe_ beings inhabit the same world?
A.--'The shining beings belong to the mid-world; while the opalescent
beings belong to the heaven-world. There are three great worlds which we
can see while we are still in the body: the earth-world, mid-world, and
heaven-world.'
_Nature of the 'Sidhe.'_--
Q.--Do you consider the life and state of these _Sidhe_ beings superior
to the life and state of men?
A.--'I could never decide. One can say that they themselves are
certainly more beautiful than men are, and that their worlds seem more
beautiful than our world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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